French cartographer Samuel de Champlain, the founder of Québec and the lake's namesake, is often claimed to be the first European to have sighted Champ, in 1609.

Despite the great distance, he claimed to have witnessed it being followed by "two large Sturgeon and a Bill-fish" and was able to see that it had three teeth and eyes the color of peeled onions.

[12] In the book The Untold Story of Champ by Robert E. Bartholomew, it is further revealed that the original photo was sent to Philip Reines, a nautical expert at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, so that he could examine and hopefully authenticate it.

Possessing the negative would allow the image to be magnified to see greater detail, while knowing the location could reveal important clues such as the object's size and distance, and whether the photo was even taken on Lake Champlain.

Although two retired FBI forensic image analysts, who reviewed the tape, said it appears authentic and unmanipulated, one of them added that "there's no place in there that I can actually see an animal or any other object on the surface".

[14] Related, the recording of sounds from within the lake by the Fauna Communications Research Institute in 2003, working as part of a Discovery Channel program.

[16] During post-production of the Champ movie Lucy and the Lake Monster, the filmmakers reviewed their drone footage from production on August 2, 2024, and noticed what appears to be a large creature swimming just below the surface of the water, in Bulwagga Bay.

The second co-writer and director of the film, Richard Rossi, referred to himself as the "Doubting Thomas," and he shared the entire five minutes of footage with a conclave of scientists with earned doctorates in science for further study to prepare a scholarly article for academic peer review.

[20] In 2022, it was reported that a feature dramatic film, Lucy and the Lake Monster, was in the works about a young orphan girl and her grandfather looking for Champ.

[22][23][24][25][26][27][28] The production filmed in Port Henry, New York[29] and in various locations around Lake Champlain's Bulwagga Bay in July and August, 2022.